


Opportunistic

by gladdecease



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-01 19:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/360358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John gets fed up with the whole looping thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opportunistic

**Author's Note:**

> With unsubtle similarities and love to SG-1’s "Window of Opportunity".

Sometime in the mid-fifties, John decided to… well. Fuck everything, so to speak. Which ended up being more helpful than you'd think.

“General,” he said, standing at attention when General O’Neill beamed down, as he had fifty-odd times previously. Before the general could make the joke that had been pretty fun the first few times but was by now one of many minor repetitive annoyances in John’s day, he added, “I’d like to take this opportunity to resign my commission, sir. Effective immediately.”

General O’Neill frowned. “That right, Colonel?”

“Yessir.”

“Any… particular reason _why_ you’ll be doing that?”

“Yessir, general sir,” John repeated, smirking. Rodney walked in then, muttering the same halfhearted apology he’d muttered forty or so times before. (John had interrupted Rodney’s work a couple times, to see if he could fix this, but it hadn’t actually worked yet.) “Hey, Rodney.” When Rodney looked up from his laptop, John cupped his face with both hands and kissed him. Nothing fancy, not with so many people around, but long enough to make his intentions clear.

“Huh,” the general said after a moment’s consideration. “I’ll admit, I did _not_ see that one coming.”

Rodney, on the other hand, gaped silently at John for a full thirty seconds. Then, blinking heavily and shaking his head, he said, “Wait, wait, wait, did I hear that right? You want to _resign your commission?_ ”

“Yep.” John grinned, enjoying the thrum of adrenaline underneath his amusement and nerves. He rocked back on his heels, watching Rodney for a reaction.

A strange look crossed Rodney’s face. “For _me?_ ” It occurred to John then that Rodney might have been flattered by the gesture.

“Yeah, for _him?_ ”

Ignoring the general’s comment, John shrugged, still smiling. Rodney smacked him with the side of his laptop.

“Ow!” It occurred to John then that Rodney was actually more angry than flattered.

“What is _wrong_ with you?” he barked. “Aside from the fact that if you resign your commission, there is almost literally a one in a million chance you’d ever see me again, let alone Teyla or Ronon, Atlantis is _screwed_ without you.” John was almost touched by that, until Rodney added, “And if Atlantis is screwed, _I_ am screwed, and I would kind of like to keep living. They don’t award Nobels posthumously!”

John took a step back, putting himself out of laptop hitting range. This wasn’t going how he’d expected. He glanced at the general, who unhelpfully said, “Seriously, this guy?”

“Hey, I’m right here!”

“Believe me, I know.” Smirking, General O’Neill turned his back on Rodney, who sputtered helplessly. His smirk fading, the general looked John over and frowned. “But really, Sheppard, you’re giving me a pretty strong case of deja vu here. You wouldn’t happen to be caught in a time loop, by any chance, would you?”

John blinked, caught off guard. “Uh.”

“Wait, what?” Rodney asked. Before anyone could respond, he said, “No, never mind, I’ll figure it out.” He muttered quietly to himself for a moment. “Caught in a time loop, okay, probably an Ancient device keeps being set off… but if you’re the only one that remembers, that means - then - wait, did you only resign and kiss me because you knew it’d be _consequence-free_?” Rodney’s voice reached a pitch John associated with panic attacks and indignation. Sure enough: “I think I’m insulted.”

John stepped back from the both of them, raising his hands defensively. “Hold up. General, how do you even - “

But a bright flash washed over the room before John could finish the question. When the light cleared, John was sitting in the mess hall across from Teyla, who was finishing a sentence the beginning of which John couldn’t for the life of him remember.

” - but what do you think, John?”

John sighed. “Ask me again tomorrow,” he begged, and left.

Right now, he had to figure out how the hell General O’Neill knew about the time loop. And why hadn’t he mentioned it on any of the other days? Would John have to kiss Rodney every time he wanted the general to realize what was going on? (Not that he’d mind, exactly, but getting smacked with a laptop again wasn’t high on his to-do list.)

Maybe he could just _ask_ the guy. General O’Neill probably wouldn’t interrogate him the way Rodney did every time John told him about the time loop. He certainly wouldn’t ask John about minute details of the looping process, or take so long asking questions that the day would start over before he actually got a chance to do anything. It couldn’t hurt, right? John raised a hand to his headset, only hesitating when he remembered it would be several hours before the ship reached Atlantis.

“Morning, Sheppard,” Rodney said, passing by John into the mess hall.

John considered him. Now that he thought about it, Rodney had only _really_ gotten mad about John resigning his commission. Maybe…

“McKay, hold up!”

He could always ask the general about the time loop next time.


End file.
